ACCLAIMED Birchfield Harrier sprint coach Steve Platt was an inspirational trainer who could always get the best out of his runners.

But despite losing a four-month battle with cancer, the 60-year-old has still motivated athletes at the Birmingham club to leave a legacy to other victims.

Medalists Ashia Hansen and Mark Lewis Francis joined other team-mates from the Perry Barr athletics club to be photographed for a special one-off 2009 calendar, described as one of the ‘raciest’ in the sport, in aid of Cancer Research UK. The move, thought up by 23-year-old heptathlete and Birmingham University graduate Louise Hazell, has now brought in £2,000 for the charity.

Louise, who represented Great Britain at the 2006 World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg and is now training for the 2012 London Olympic Games, said: “Coaches do so much for their athletes but often when people that you know are ill, you don’t know what to do. I thought that producing the calendar could be a positive thing for the athletes to focus on.”

Steve, who coached former World Triple Jump champion Ashia Hansen as well as Olympic gold medalist Mark Lewis Francis, who sprinted to glory in the 100m relay in Athens, in 2004, died on Boxing Day last year.

The coach, from Walsall, won the title of Coach of the Year in 2000 from the National Coaching Foundation despite working full-time as an engineer for GKN, in Aldridge, and coaching in his spare time.

Tom McCook, Birchfield Harriers president, said: “Sadly, no-one is immune from cancer and Steve’s death from the disease was one of the driving forces behind this calendar.

“It was a wonderful idea by Louise and done at short notice. I am very proud of them.

“Steve was a very good coach and a first class person. His death saddened so many of the athletes but came at a time when two of the club coaches were fighting the disease.”